1993 sunbird loses power up hill

[lioneyes]

Hello, my 93 4 cyl auto sunbird loses power going up hill. It has always been somewhat gutless but now it won't go over 30 mph up a long hill even when it kicks to the lower gear. One friend of mine thinks it is the catalytic converter. Any other suggestions?

Thanks very much.

 

[Unregistered]

93 sunbird low power

you friend may be right, with the car running put your hand over the tailpipe to see if you have lost of exhaust coming out

 

[lioneyes]

HI, I think that is what he did to make that determination. So that makes sense then? Would the clogged CConv cause this loss of power when going uphill?

 

[Unregistered]

cc plugged

most definately, but it is only one of the possibilities that will cause low power (as you problably know) another possibility, try to see if there is heat difference before the cc and after, i would think a signifigant difference would tell you something

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[lioneyes]

thanks again. my friend who was going to change the cc for me had to leave town for a few weeks, but hopefully that is the problem.

 

[eagle05]

i had a problem like that

it was a bad plug wire . as long as the engine wasnt under a load it worked just fine start up a hill and it would back shift the transmission and acted like I was pulling a large boat behind it. I never noticed a skip and was baffled by it . I took it to the dealer and a young kid took it for a test drive and came back and looked it over for about 15 minutes and said it was a bad plug wire.
I was not sure about this kid and debated his findings then he showed me the wire . there was a small burnt gap where the metal conector and the nylon wire was suppose to be he said the spark plug would fire as long as it wasnt under a load because both the gap in the plug wire and the gap at the plug, but as soon as it was loaded the spark was too weak to fire the plug and it would miss causing a loss of power which made the tranny down shift to compensate for the power loss. and as soon as he put on the new wires I had to apologize and I bragged on him to his boss. yeah I felt stupid

 

[lioneyes]

thanks for the new info eagle - now fuse box

I finally had my mechanic come check it out. he tested everything and said that all it could really be that was not tested is the coil/module or something. also said it might be clogged fuel injectors. either would need to be replaced to determine according to him.

anyway, on to my next problem. my underdash fuse box seems to be on its last legs. part of the fuse holder for the wiper fuse fell out and other fuses are lose and only work sometimes. all fuses are still good.

I can't even find a fuse box to purchase online that looks similar. am wondering if there is some easier, cheaper way to deal with getting my wipers back to working. replace fuse holders? where to get those? use something called add-a-circuit? not sure.

the car is not worth the few hundred bucks it would cost me to get the mechanic over again. just trying to keep it going for around town for as long as I can.

thanks.